The effect of blocking inter-trial interval on sequential effects in absolute identification

Abstract

Sequential effects are ubiquitous in decision-making, but no more than in the absolute identification task where participants must identify stimuli from a set of items that vary on a single dimension. A number of competing explanations for these sequential effects have been proposed, and recently Matthews and Stewart [(2009a). The effect of inter-stimulus interval on sequential effects in absolute identification. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62, 2014–2029] showed that manipulations of the time between decisions is useful in discriminating between these accounts. We use a Bayesian hierarchical regression model to show that inter-trial interval has an influence on behaviour when it varies across different blocks of trials, but not when it varies from trial to trial. We discuss the implications of both our and Matthews and Stewart's results on the effect of inter-trial interval for theories of sequential effects.